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The frozen continent of Antarctica was the last continent humanity set foot on. The first documented landings made below the Antarctic Circle took place in 1820, when Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and the crew of the Vostok and Mirny, as part of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, made land at Peter I Island and Alexander Island.
East Antarctica is significantly larger than West Antarctica, and similarly remains widely unexplored in terms of its volcanic potential. While there are some indications that there is volcanic activity under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, there is not a significant amount of present information on the subject.
In 2022, a study narrowed the warming of the Central area of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet between 1959 and 2000 to 0.31 °C (0.56 °F) per decade, and conclusively attributed it to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations caused by human activity. [50] East Antarctica cooled in the 1980s and 1990s, even as West Antarctica warmed (left-hand side).
Antarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. According to the terms of the treaty, military activity, mining, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste disposal are all prohibited in Antarctica. Tourism, fishing and research are the main human activities in and around Antarctica.
Surface water is enriched in salt from sea ice formation and cooled due to being exposed to a cold atmosphere during winter, which increases the density of this water mass. Due to its increased density, it forms overflows down the Antarctic continental slope and continues north along the bottom. It is the densest water in the open ocean, and ...
For example, increasing AIS volume directly increases Antarctic continental shelf erosion. This is known as glacial erosion . Increased erosion of the continental shelf makes the AIS more sensitive to ocean forcing — the sum of forces that amplify the ocean's ability to affect climate and surface conditions. [ 3 ]
[1] [2] [3] When a glacier is very thick, the pressure at the bottom is great enough that liquid water can exist at temperatures where water would freeze, at regular pressures. The ice above Lake Vostok , the largest antarctic lake, is approximately 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) thick.
A map of the Antarctic region, including the Antarctic Convergence and the 60th parallel south The Antarctic Plate. The Antarctic (/ æ n ˈ t ɑːr t ɪ k,-k t ɪ k /, US also / æ n t ˈ ɑːr t ɪ k,-k t ɪ k /; commonly / æ ˈ n ɑːr t ɪ k /) [Note 1] is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole.